(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a novel polyether copolymer and a method of producing the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to a polyether copolymer and a method of producing the same with a simple procedure and high efficiency, which is crystalline and exhibits sufficient heat resistance and as well has excellent solvent resistance and mechanical strength. The novel polyether copolymer is useful as a material in the field of electric and electronic apparatuses and instruments and in the field of machinery.
The present invention further relates to a resin composition containing the polyether copolymer, more particularly, to a thermoplastic resin composition which, because of its excellent properties including high mechanical strength and heat-resistance, excellent inflammability, good moldability, is suitable as a material for various polymer molded articles, such as the parts for electric and electronic apparatuses and instruments and machines.
The present invention further relates to molded articles formed from the polyether copolymer. Concretely, the present invention further relates to a heat-resistant laminate comprising a layer of the polyether copolymer and a layer of a fibrous reinforcing material, more particularly, to a heat-resistant laminate which exhibits sufficient heat resistance, excels in mechanical strength, electrical properties, inflammability, chemical resistance, and moldability, and is useful as a novel material suitable for the fields of electric and electronic apparatuses and instruments, machinery, and chemical industries.
Also, the present invention relates to polyether copolymer fiber made of the polyether copolymer, more particularly, to polyether copolymer fiber which has excellent properties including high heat resistance and mechanical strength and is suitable, for example, as a material for composite materials or as a material for woven or knitted fabric.
Further, the present invention relates to a polyether copolymer film made of the polyether copolymer, more particularly, the present invention relates to a polyether copolymer film which excels in heat resistance, mechanical strength, solvent resistance, chemical resistance, and inflammability, and is suitable, for example, as a material for the parts of electric and electronic apparatuses and instruments and machines.
(b) Description of the Related Art
In recent years, engineering plastics having various structures have been developed and used in many fields including the field of automobiles, electric and electronic fields, the field of precision instruments, the field of office automation instruments, and the field of optical communication instruments. The efficiency of these plastics, however, is insufficient to satisfy all requirements, for their efficiency, there is a demand for the development of novel materials.
Polyether copolymer is one of these conventional engineering resins and exhibits, in particular, excellent heat resistance, and therefore various kinds of polyether copolymers have been proposed.
For instance, in Japanese Patent Application Kokai Koho (Laid-open) No. 47-14270 proposed is a method of producing aromatic polyether copolymers in which dinitrobenzonitrile, a dihalogenobenzophenone, and a dihydric phenol are allowed to react with each other in the presence of an alkali metal compound. However, the method provides no more than low molecular weight copolymers having a melt viscosity of at most 200 poise at 400.degree. C., and the obtained copolymers do not have sufficient heat resistance and mechanical strength.
In Japanese Patent Application Kokai Koho (Laid-open) No. 60-235835 disclosed is a method wherein a dihalogenobenzonitrile, 4,4'-dihalogenobenzophenone, and an alkali metal salt of a dihydric phenol are allowed to react to produce a polyether copolymer comprising the repeating units represented by the following formula (a): ##STR3## the repeating units represented by the following formula (b): ##STR4## wherein Ar represents a divalent aromatic group, and containing the repeating units represented by the formula (a) in a ratio of at least 0.5. However, the polyether copolymer is amorphous and therefore cannot maintain its mechanical strength at the temperatures higher than its glass transition temperature and cannot exhibit sufficient heat resistance.
In Great Britain Patent No. 2203744 proposed is a method of producing a polymer comprising the repeating units represented by the following formula: ##STR5## by allowing 4,4'-biphenol and a 1,4-bis(4'-halobenzoyl)benzene to react with each other. Though the polymer has a melting point of 430.degree. C. and is usable as a nucleic agent for crystallizing polymers, the melting point thereof is too high to mold it by using ordinary methods.
Furthermore, some uses requires more excellent properties of thermoplastic engineering plastics, and, as well, there is an increasing demand for high inflammability to ensure the safety during use. Generally, metal oxides or halogen compounds have been used as flame retardants to be mixed into the thermoplastic engineering resins. However, a large amount of these metal oxides or halogen compounds are required to render thermoplastic resins, such as the conventional engineering resins, sufficient inflammability, thereby causing problems, including a considerable increase in the weight of the obtained resin compositions and a decrease in the mechanical strength and the moldability.
Now then, laminates obtainable by impregnating cloth or mat made of glass fiber or carbon fiber with thermosetting resins followed by curing the thermosetting resins have been well known as materials for electric and electronic parts or machine parts. However, the production of the laminates of this kind needs solvents, which not only contaminates the working environment but also requires the step for collecting the solvents used, and, in addition, a lengthy heat treatment is required to cure the thermosetting resins. In order to solve these problems, there has been proposed that thermoplastic resins having high heat resistance be used in place of thermosetting resins as a material for the laminates. Typical examples of the thermoplastic resins proposed include crosslinked polyethylene, polyethylenetetrafluoride, and polyphenyleneoxide. However, the heat resistance of crosslinked polyethylene is not sufficiently high, and polyethylenetetrafluoride is poor in moldability. Besides, in the fields requiring heat resistance and chemical resistance, polyphenyleneoxide is unsuitable as a material resin for the laminates because of a lack of enough heat resistance and chemical resistance.
Further, fibers made of various engineering resins excelling in heat resistance and mechanical strength are used in many fields, nevertheless the fibers are still not satisfactory in some aspects, and it is hoped to develop fiber made of novel materials. For example, there are some propositions of the use of polyetherketone copolymers, which are known as an engineering resin (Refer to Japanese Patent Application Kokai Koho (Laid-open) No. 54-90296). These conventional resins however have problems, for example, low glass transition temperatures (Tg) which make them unsuited for the use requiring high heat resistance, and insufficient mechanical properties, such as mechanical strength including tensile strength, knot strength, and Young's modulus of elasticity. Moreover, some resins have more problems in that they are apt to gel, thereby hindering the spinning of fiber.
In recent years, there have been developed various kinds of resin films having excellent heat resistance and mechanical strength, which came to be used for a wide range of uses as materials for the parts of electric and electronic apparatuses and instruments and machines. As the resin films came to be used widely, the demand for resin films having more excellent properties has increased. There are known films formed from various kinds of high efficiency resins. Nevertheless, even the films made of polyetheretherketones and known to have the most excellent heat resistance and mechanical strength among the known resin films do not have sufficiently satisfactory film properties because the resin is apt to contain gel due to the drastic condition during the production thereof.